Getting back to the earlier themes of delicious apple desserts and Judaism, I strongly recommend Joan Nathan's apple cake. The recipe is available at http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/14602). I suspect that the orange juice is what makes it so good.

Incidentally, does anyone in the US know why apple cider (the thick brown unfiltered juice, not the Martinelli's-type yellow sparking beverage) is so rare and expensive on the West Coast? We certainly grow enough apples around here, but apparently that's not what we use them for...

Having grown up in the Hudson Valley in NY where I could go to a spot where I could watch them press it and get a glassful (bliss  the word is bliss) I'd say it's because it's so eager to ferment. I'm betting no one wants the headaches of keeping it that cold and the losses from the amount that would go bad out here where people have no idea what real cider is.

It's one of the things I haven't gotten over missing in these 30+ years... _________________God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor

Ohhh Rainey, I know what you mean! I generally don't drink juice, and never citrus, but come the autumn and they rev up the apple presses my fridge is never without a bottle of brown sweet apple cider. And I can get a gallon (4 litres approx) for $7 at my local farmers' market made from apples picked only a few Kms from my home._________________Vivant Linguae Mortuae!!

There used to be a cider mill on a remote road not terribly far from my high school  which was a consolidated school out in the boonies. Sometimes I'd go out there a watch them press. It would be the guy running the press, me at the door and a few cows at a window waiting for their shot at the mash. _________________God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor

Cider! As we speak there's a jug in the fridge. Locally, a lot of the producers UV treat it to kill all the potential buggies and probably to make it last longer w/o pasteurizing it. I think every grocery store in the area is stocked full. 1/2 gallon jug was $US2.50 I believe from a local orchard.

On the flip side, Mott's juice company (owned by Kraft) now makes an instant "apple flavored drink mix" in hot spiced cider. Just add hot water. YUCK!! (I only know this because the local career fair was giving it out as a freebie with a mug- one was passed to my stepmother)

I have enjoyed the Hebrew calendar part of this thread and thought I'd segue back there!

I am reading The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon. It's a murder mystery with the detective being a hard nosed Jewish cop.(Kind of Sam Spade, speaking Yiddish) It takes place in Alaska - which in the novel is where the Jews settled in 1948. There is a lot of other revised history also...the Cuban war of the 60's. The atomic bombing of Germany in 1946...

Anyway, the calendar they refer to in the book is the Hebrew calendar. the murder occured on the second of Av, the 15th of Elul, the new year in Tishrei. It piqued my interest and I looked it up on Wikipedia before we started on this thread! It's been informative to read the postings here! _________________L'appetit vient en mangeant. -Rabelais

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who misses apple cider! I never got fresh-from-the-presses juice, but there was always plenty at the supermarket back in NJ. Rainey, I occasionally find cider at Safeway (it's around for about 2 weeks a year, I think!), but it's often $5-7 for 1/2 gallon. Highway robbery, but nothing feels more like fall to me than cider heated up and sprinkled with a tiny bit of cinnamon. Mmmmm...

You mean about 2.5-3.5 Euro for two liters of pure cider? You are lucky people over there in the USA!!! It's the price of a cup of coffee ! I have to take my money and come over the ocean for shopping!!!